7/7/01
3:03:19 PM
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
"We Cover the Earth For You"
TUNNELS UNDER U.S. CAPITAL PLANNED TO CONTROL SEWAGE
By Shervin Hess
WASHINGTON, DC, July 6, 2001 (ENS) - Ten miles of tunnels may be excavated below the nation's capital in an attempt to control contamination of the area's rivers, among the most heavily polluted in North America. The District of Columbia's new billion dollar tunnel proposal would take up to 20 years to complete and would still allow millions of gallons of untreated water to flow into the Anacostia River.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-06-02.html
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ACTS AGAINST U.S. CLIMATE STANCE
STRASBOURG, France, July 6, 2001 (ENS) - In its last session before the summer break, The European Parliament passed a resolution to limit the advantage the United States might gain by not ratifying the Kyoto climate protocol.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-06-03.html
UK GOVERNMENT ASSESSES IMPACT OF TURKEY'S ILISU DAM
LONDON, United Kingdom, July 5, 2001 (ENS) - The UK government has issued an Environmental Impact Assessment of the proposed Ilisu Dam on the Tigris River in Turkey. The Ilisu Dam is part of a $1.52 billion hydroelectric project on the Tigris 65 kilometers upstream of the Turkish border with Syria and Iraq.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-06-05.html
TORTUGAS MARINE RESERVE NOW LARGEST IN THE U.S.
KEY WEST, Florida, July 6, 2001 (ENS) - More than 150 square nautical miles of spectacular deepwater corals and critical fish spawning sites became part of the United States' largest permanent marine reserve on Sunday. The new Tortugas Ecological Reserve is part of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, located more than 70 miles west of Key West.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-06-06.html
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: JULY 6, 2001
Protesting Farmers Breach Canal Gates
Extra Water in the Walla Walla River Benefits Bull Trout
New Mexico Will Set Aside Water for Silvery Minnow
$7.8 Million Agreement Protects Fish From Nuclear Plant
Snowmobiles Could Be Headed Back Into Yellowstone
House Would Spend $150 to Rebuild Eroding Beaches
Southern Beaches Called Critical Habitat for Piping Plovers
Resource Center Helps Stricken Nuclear Workers
Fish Counters Head for Stellwagen Bank
Pressure Treated Wood to Carry Arsenic Warnings
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-06-09.html
7/7/01
1:46:40 PM
Let Solar Power See the Light of Day
by Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.
They've lost it, lost it, and their children will never ever wish for it -and I am afraid ... because the sun keeps rising and these days nobody sings. -- Aaron Kramer
Is it really a lack of the right technology that is keeping solar power off the mass market? Or is the light from our nearest star, the Sun, being held hostage by an economy that is devoted to using up the Earth's last drops of fossil fuel at all cost?
Using the light from the Sun, our ultimate energy source, is not a new technology at all, but has been around for thousands of years. Passive solar heating, orienting a dwelling to take advantage of the sun, has influenced the design of communities from the times of ancient Greece. Fuel wood supplies quickly dwindled as cities grew and an energy crisis was soon at hand. In the 4th century B.C., merchants rose to power by controlling wood supplies and cornering export and import markets. Greed is not a modern invention.
Evidence of the use of solar architecture, the design of buildings to make best use of the Sun, has been found in many archaeological excavations. A solar oriented home conserved the use of wood and coal and saved money.
In the 4th century A.D., all of the 4,000 residents of the city of Priene in Asia Minor relocated their homes to nearby Mount Mycale to escape frequent floods. An entirely new city was designed and oriented so that they could enjoy the warmth of the Sun in winter and be spared its heat in summer.
The use of glass in the 17th and 18th centuries was a way to capture the heat of the Sun efficiently. Soon, solar engines and machines were devised, including a solar powered steam engine, and a solar boiler. A massive solar power plant was built in Egypt in 1912. This plant could pump 6,000 gallons of water per minute and generate 55 horsepower. Plans were underway to replace dirty coal with this new, cheaper form of energy.
The onset of World War I in 1914 ended that wave of solar development projects around the world, as engineers and workers left their jobs in sunny climates to do war related work in their homelands.
At this point, huge oil and natural gas fields were discovered, eliminating the incentive to continue solar power development. Oil and gas were selling at giveaway prices, and the world's governments and business people became complacent over the availability of energy. Many of the land barons who became the oilmen of the early 20th century formed the huge energy companies we have today.
Also around this time, solar powered water heaters were really catching on. More than half the population of Miami, Florida had them by 1941, including 80 percent of the new homes built. But World War II and the prohibition on non-military uses of copper nearly ended the industry in favor of new, cheap electricity.
In the 1950s and 1960s, U.S. gas and electric utilities promoted heavy consumption in their advertising campaigns. Lower prices were given to those who used more energy! The campaigns worked, and natural gas and other fuel production doubled between 1950 and 1965. With prices at two cents per kilowatt-hour, there was absolutely no incentive to create energy efficient appliances.
The energy ethic that exists today had taken hold. The goal had become to sell the cheapest forms of energy possible to make the most profit for utility owners. Alternative forms of energy that use free sources such as sunlight, wind, and the heat of the Earth do not fit into this model of production.
Even though crude oil shortages were beginning to appear in the mid-1960s, the U.S. government never embraced the new technology for solar cells. Authors Ken Butti and John Perlin in their book "Golden Thread, 25,000 years of Solar Architecture and Technology," said that "Washington's attitude mirrored that of a nation hypnotized by seemingly limitless supplies of cheap fossil fuel, and by the almost magic aura surrounding nuclear energy."
Butti and Perlin remind us that there was no powerful solar lobby like the ones for the huge business interests behind coal, oil, gas, and nuclear power.
Recently, some cities have offered subsidies for property owners who choose to install solar cells to generate power. But nearly all those programs demand that the homes continue to be hooked up to the energy grid, selling back their surplus power to the electric utility. This has severely limited the ability of people to be able to afford to leave the power grid completely to supply their own energy needs.
The utility companies, of course, do not want you to leave the grid, since such an approach would infringe on profits. So anti-solar propaganda is spread liberally around the world. In an article in the "Washington Post" on June 8 that was carried as a full page special feature in the "Seattle Times," readers were told that even with batteries attached to solar systems, "homeowners probably could not run washers and air conditioners at the same time."
But do we really need to run them at the same time? The same postwar energy consumption mindset is still firmly in place.
That same article quotes a 'solar expert' from the Electric Power Research Institute who continues to dampen our enthusiasm for solar power today by predicting that in "100 years from now, solar energy will provide a substantial percentage of the world's energy needs." He tells us that solar power is still a "luxury item, like buying a swimming pool." Sadly, it is true.
But while the U.S. government has been uninterested in developing solar power commercially, many inventors around the world have continued solar development and many other nations are aggressively pursuing solar power. The Sanyo Company plans to build the world's largest solar power generation system, with a 3.4 megawatt output, in Toyko by 2004. One megawatt is enough electricity to light 1,000 typical American homes.
Sim Van der Ryn, an architect who directed California's now defunct Office of Appropriate Technology under Governor Jerry Brown, told the "Benicia News," a California newspaper, "If the government had been a major purchaser of [solar] photovoltaics, it would have stimulated that industry."
Van der Ryn asserts, "You could supply the entire electricity demand of the U.S. with one giant solar farm in Nevada."
As a 20 year veteran of our nation's space exploration program, I have seen the advances made in creating solar power systems for spacecraft. The capability of creating super efficient machines exists as well.
While working on the Voyager, Galileo, and Space Station missions for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, I worked designing missions for instruments that were the most advanced, yet most energy efficient, on Earth. A high resolution TV camera used five to 10 watts of power. Its counterpart in a TV station on Earth uses tens of thousands of watts.
When fully deployed in space at the International Space Station, the eight solar panel wings, each 107 by 38 feet, will encompass an area of 32,528 square feet, and will provide power to the station for 15 years. Those panels provide enough energy to power about 10 average American homes.
The solar technology is there, but the heart and motivation are not. It is time to throw open the doors to solar power technology and release the stranglehold that fossil fuel energy companies have on our lives.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2001/2001L-06-15g.html
RESOURCES
1. Visit Real Goods for a primer on solar power at:
http://www.solareco.com/articles/articles.cfm?ct=1000
While you are there, you can outfit your home with the necessary equipment to get off the grid.
2. Visit the Institute for Solar Living at: http://www.solarliving.org/index.cfm For info about a sustainable future.
3. Get into solar cooking at: http://solarcooking.org
4. Learn about the human impact on our world from the Worldwatch Institute at:
5. Find out who your Congressional representatives are and e-mail them. If you know your Zip code, you can find them at:
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ziptoit.html
6. Contact President Bush at president@whitehouse.gov Tell him it is time to let the Sun shine in and to stop resisting solar power.
Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. is a writer and teacher in Seattle. He can be found marveling at all the energy from the Sun that bathes our Earth every day. Please send your thoughts, comments, and visions to him at
jackie@healingourworld.com and visit his web site at:
http://www.healingourworld.com
7/7/01
1:33:50 PM
NEWS FROM THE WORLDWATCH INSTITUTE WORLDWATCH ONLINE FORUM INVITATION
Please join us for a free one-week online forum on the third world debt crisis beginning on July 18, sponsored by the Worldwatch Institute and Communications for a Sustainable Future
WHEN: July 18-25, embracing the July 20-22 G-8 summit in Genoa. The best time to subscribe is now, before the forum opens.
WHAT: David Roodman, the author of a new Worldwatch Institute report-- "Still Waiting for the Jubilee: Pragmatic Solutions for the Third World Debt Crisis"--will participate in this online global forum. To learn more about the report and the forum, visit:
http://csf.colorado.edu/sustainable-economics/third-world-debt.
Copies of "Still Waiting for the Jubilee," in print or as an Adobe PDF electronic file for immediate download, are available for a small fee at:
http://secure.worldwatch.org/cgi-bin/wwinst/WWP0155.
WHO: Everyone is encouraged to join. The forum will be moderated. Archives of the proceedings will be publicly available. It will help to read the Worldwatch report beforehand, but please participate even if you do not read it.
HOW: To subscribe, visit
http://csf.colorado.edu/sustainable-economics/third-world-debt
Or send a one-line message containing "subscribe sustainable-economics" to
majordomo@csf.colorado.edu.
WHY: As the leaders of the world's most powerful nations gather in Genoa, Italy--and as thousands of protestors throng the streets--join us for a global, electronic conversation on one of the most disturbing issues within the debate over globalization, the third world debt crisis.
Do the world's poorest countries need immediate release from the "chains of debt"? Or will that just let corrupt dictators off the hook? What can be done to prevent another crisis? If those questions trouble you, please join us to discuss them.
Background
The global debate over the third world debt crisis will crescendo on July 20-22 as the heads of the world's eight leading industrial nations (G-8) gather in Genoa, Italy. The host of the summit, the government of Italy, has vowed to put the debt crisis at the top of the agenda. And Drop the Debt, a London-based successor to Jubilee 2000 (the campaign that forced rich-country politicians to respond to the debt crisis in the late 1990s), has set its sites on a "New Deal on Debt" from the Genoa summit
http://www.dropthedebt.org/action/genoa.shtml
Since World War II, the richest countries have lent the poorest ones hundreds of billions of dollars, much of it in the name of democracy, freedom, and development. Yet scores of the borrowing countries are now mired in debt and poverty--some 47, according to World Bank benchmarks, all but 10 of them African. Together, they owe $422 billion, or $380 per person, a substantial sum for them, but just 11 months of military spending for western governments. Responding to pressure from nongovernmental organizations, creditor governments have recently offered to cancel up to 55 percent of the debt they are owed by 41 poor debtors. In return, they are demanding that debtors implement market- oriented "structural adjustment" economic policies and design poverty- fighting plans in consultation with civil society groups.
Many rich-world politicians now want to put debt cancellation behind them. But many non-governmental groups are calling for more. Both sides, Roodman argues, may have unrealistic expectations about how much good such programs are doing and can do. On the one hand, almost all of the debt set for cancellation would never have been repaid anyway, so canceling it will not make much financial difference. On the other hand, debtor governments uncommitted to the policies that creditors are demanding in return for debt cancellation will generally implement the policies only in the breech. To expect much more is to ignore the lessons of history.
Do you agree? Disagree? Join David July 18-25 for a lively discussion. Visit:
http://csf.colorado.edu/sustainable-economics/third-world-debt
To encourage others to join, please circulate this invitation.
To learn more about the sponsors--Worldwatch Institute and Communications for a Sustainable Future--visit:
http://www.worldwatch.org and http://csf.colorado.edu
7/6/01
2:58:18 PM
Pesticide Decision A Victory For Canadians
by David Suzuki
Last week the Canadian Supreme Court gave all Canadians a present just in time for Canada Day. The court upheld a decision allowing the town of Hudson, Quebec, to ban the cosmetic use of pesticides and herbicides. The decision opens the doors for other municipalities across the country to consider such legislation, which would reduce our exposure to these chemicals and help build healthier communities. In the past few decades, the use of pesticides and herbicides for cosmetic purposes has become ubiquitous throughout North America. They are inexpensive, readily available, and easy to use. And because we often mix these chemicals with fertilizers, we end up using large quantities unnecessarily, spreading them over entire lawns and gardens regardless of whether or not weeds or pests are present.
But our reliance on these chemicals has a downside. Approximately 7,000 different herbicide and pesticide products are currently on the market in Canada. These products contain hundreds of different active agents, a large number of which were approved before 1960 when their long-term effects were not well known. Many are potent neurological or metabolic poisons. Only a handful has been fully tested for carcinogenic or mutagenic effects. In addition to active agents, they contain some 5,000 other ingredients, some of which have also been linked to cancer and other illnesses.
The pesticide industry argues that their chemicals are safe and represent little health risk. And they point out that few studies have exclusively implicated their products with illness in humans. That's partly true; the connections between pesticides and health problems in humans are not always clear cut. For example, more than 15 scientific studies have linked Parkinson's disease in people to environmental conditions such as working in the agricultural or chemical industries or living in farming communities that regularly use pesticides. But there are no definitive studies showing that any particular pesticide currently in use in Canada can actually cause Parkinson's.
Proving a direct causal link between pesticides and disease in humans can be very difficult because there are so many factors involved. The amount of a pesticide, the duration of exposure, whether the pesticide was combined with other chemicals, the age of the exposed individual, and his or her genetic predisposition all play a role. But there is a great deal of evidence that many of these pesticides, either alone or in combination, are factors in many diseases, including Parkinson's, cancers such as non-Hodgkins lymphoma (which has risen by 73 percent since 1973), asthma, and others.
For example, two years ago, European researchers found that Swedish sufferers of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma were 2.7 times more likely to have been exposed to the herbicide MCPA (found in weed-and-feed-type products) and 2.3 times more likely to have been exposed to the herbicide glyphosate (Round-Up). Some of these products may also be more detrimental to the health of children because of their smaller size and developing organs. A study by the Ontario College of Family Physicians last year, for example, concluded that children face undeniable risks from pesticide exposure.
Humans today face a barrage of industrial chemicals, from pesticides and herbicides to motor vehicle and diesel exhaust, PCBs, cleaning agents, solvents, and more. We breathe combinations of these chemicals in the air, drink them in our water, and eat them in our food. Yet when we test them, we do it individually because studying combinations quickly escalates into an impossible number of variables. Given our valid suspicions, shouldn't the burden of proof be on the manufacturers to prove that their products are safe rather than on the public to prove that they are not?
People tend to associate beautiful, lush gardens with health and vitality. But with the increasing use of pesticides, our gardens have become a paradox. They look beautiful, but they may harbor chemicals that are decidedly unhealthy. A lawn or garden does not require the constant input of herbicides and pesticides to remain beautiful. Hopefully the recent court decision will start a new trend.
http://www.enn.com/news/enn-stories/2001/07/07062001/science_pesticide_44163.asp
7/6/01
2:54:04 PM
26 states urge automakers to swap out mercury components
By Environmental News Network
New York state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and his counterparts from 25 other states and territories are asking the auto industry to replace a part that has been identified as a source of air and groundwater pollution. In a recent letter to the Ford Motor Company, the attorneys general asked the automaker to replace hood and trunk light switches that contain mercury, a toxic substance that causes brain, kidney, and fetal damage.
The mercury used in switches for hood and trunk convenience lighting and in other devices becomes a contaminant when vehicles are scrapped.
In a letter to Ford Chairman William Clay Ford Jr. and Ford President and CEO Jacques Nasser, the 26 states' chief law enforcement officers urged the company to replace the mercury lighting switches in vehicles that come in to dealerships as part of Ford's ongoing general recall of vehicles with defective tires.
"Ford has an opportunity to be an environmental leader," Spitzer said. "As part of its current recall of millions of vehicles, the company could quickly and easily replace hood and trunk light switches that pose a significant environment hazard."
Spitzer noted that Ford and other manufacturers have already taken steps to reduce their use of light switches containing mercury in new vehicles. Implementing a replacement policy for existing vehicles would be a step forward, he said.
Ford still uses mercury switches for convenience lighting in the hoods and trunks of some of its vehicles and installs mercury switches in certain antilock brake systems and in other applications.
"The new Ford vehicles that contain mercury switches and the tens of millions of existing Ford vehicles on the road and in junkyards that contain mercury switches represent an enormous potential for release of mercury to the environment," the attorneys general wrote.
They pointed out that no effective national program exists to remove mercury switches from vehicles at the end of their use. "These switches remain in the vehicles during junk-car scrappage and then are melted in steel furnaces where the mercury vaporizes into the air," the attorneys general wrote. "Such furnaces, which receive the bulk of their mercury from junked vehicles, are the fourth largest source of airborne mercury emissions nationwide, after utility and industrial boilers and incinerators."
Ford and Nasser are out of the office and have not read the letter from the attorneys general, according to Robyn Schultz, Ford's environmental communications officer. The company has no plans to replace switches containing mercury in recalled vehicles, she said.
"Our current plan calls for phasing out mercury switches in new cars after this year," said Schultz.
Currently, Ford works with the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers and waste-management directors to remove and recycle the switches containing mercury.
"The amounts of mercury in each one of these switches is miniscule," Schulz said, "not much more than a thermometer."
The Clean Car Campaign endorses and supports the attorneys general in their position on switches containing mercury. With the support of 26 environmental organizations, the Clean Car Campaign called on Ford and other automakers to remove components containing mercury from vehicles that are brought in for service, repair, or recall.
The Clean Car Campaign sent letters recently to the heads of Ford, DaimlerChrysler, and General Motors, asking the auto companies to show leadership in getting the toxic substance out of the environment by having dealers remove switches for free when vehicles come in for service.
"It's time for automakers to take responsibility for the environmental hazards of their vehicles," said Charles Griffith, auto project director at the Ecology Center. "By replacing these mercury switches they can protect the environment and consumers with a simple, affordable fix."
The AGs' recommended replacements would remove up to 2.5 tons of mercury from the environment. "Ford could show real leadership among automakers by replacing not just the tires but also the toxic mercury," said Dean Menke, an engineer with Environmental Defense.
"Given the well-documented hazards of mercury, the availability of low cost alternatives, and the ease of replacement, I urge Ford not to let this opportunity pass by," Attorney General Spitzer said.
One alternative to the mercury hood and trunk light switch is a ball-bearing switch that costs about 38 cents.
Gregory Dana, vice president of environmental affairs at the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, stated the alliance's position regarding the phaseout of mercury switches in automobiles in January. He said, "The auto industry recognizes that mercury can be harmful to the environment, and mercury switches must be phased out. The environmental community now wants these switches removed from all cars on the road today at the industry's expense. This makes neither environmental nor economic sense."
Dana said, "The capsule that contains the mercury in an automotive light switch is indestructible. Because there is no harm to the environment while this switch is in use, it is smarter to remove it at the end-of-life of the vehicle, along with other environmentally harmful substances such as the gasoline, engine oil, and transmission fluid."
Dana continued, "In 1995, GM, Ford, and Chrysler pledged to Michigan to eliminate the use of mercury convenience light switches as new models were introduced. These companies have kept their pledge. Over the past five years, mercury switch use has been reduced significantly. After the 2001 model year, only two models in the entire industry will still use mercury switches, with their phaseout coming soon."
Across the country, 41 states have issued 2,242 fish warnings, telling anglers to eliminate or limit their consumption of certain fish due to mercury contamination in the fish flesh.
In New York, mercury warnings have been issued for for 22 water bodies, including five reservoirs supplying water to New York City.
Exposure to mercury occurs from breathing contaminated air and ingesting contaminated water and food. The federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry says mercury has been found in at least 714 of 1,467 National Priorities List hazardous waste sites identified by the Environmental Protection Agency.
http://www.enn.com/news/enn-stories/2001/07/07062001/mercury_44192.asp
7/6/01
2:42:51 PM
FAIR
Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting
Media analysis, critiques and news reports
ACTIVISM UPDATE: National Press Club Covers for Kissinger
In a June 29 action alert, FAIR encouraged readers to contact the National Press Club and The Charlie Rose Show about recent appearances by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. While in Paris in May, Kissinger was served with a summons to appear at the French Palace of Justice to answer questions about murders and disappearances in Chile around the time of the U.S.-supported coup in 1973.
The event sparked some coverage in the European press, but in the United States the reaction was much different. Charlie Rose failed to ask Kissinger about the incident during his most recent appearance on the show, while at the National Press Club it appears there was an arrangement to avoid asking Kissinger about the matter at all.
Though they received well over one hundred emails, FAIR is unaware of any responses from The Charlie Rose Show. The National Press Club, to its credit, has responded with the following form letter:
This event was a Book Rap to discuss Dr. Kissinger's new book "Does America Need a Foreign Policy?" Questions asked by the moderator were to be about the book. It was not a press conference. If it had been a press conference, the National Press Club would have no problem asking the "tough questions".
The fact that this was a "Book Rap" is of little importance; if the National Press Club has a policy to restrict questions at book events to those of the author's choosing, it would be setting a poor ethical standard for journalists.
It's also important to recall what Kissinger's book is about in the first place-- namely, American foreign policy, including the issue of war crimes tribunals. Kissinger's book aims to lay out a blueprint for U.S. foreign policy, and the case in France is a perfect illustration of the potential consequences of following Kissinger's policy advice. It's hard to imagine a more appropriate venue to discuss the issue. Yet, as journalists Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman noted, the Press Club's moderator at the event explicitly told them that Kissinger "preferred to avoid" the subject altogether because "it would take so much time to explain all of the context."
The Press Club closes by arguing that "if it had been a press conference, the National Press Club would have no problem asking the 'tough questions.'" FAIR eagerly awaits the event at the National Press Club where such matters will be discussed.
7/6/01
2:17:32 PM
The Prophets Conferences/GreatMystery.org, in addition to presenting exceptional gatherings worldwide with today's leading thinkers and authors, is also facilitating very special tours and expeditions with leading adventurers, and we are pleased to be once again working with Peter Gorman. We hope that you may find his truly unusual and most possibly life enhancing expedition of interest. If this adventure is for you or not, you may very well find the Gorman excerpt that follows an interesting and fun read.
AMAZON JAUNT: August 4-18, 2001
CUZCO AND MACHU PICCHU EXPEDITION: August 18-25, 2001
PETER GORMAN, former Editor-In-Chief of High Times Magazine and regular adventurer into the depths of the Peruvian Amazon, is taking a small group of people into the jungle and then on to the Andes for the adventures of their lives.
Peter Gorman is taking these people to participate, with authentic and highly skilled Amazonian curanderos, in the ceremonious imbibing of the sacred power plant brew - ayahuasca. The opening of doors into the spirit plane, with the resultant physical and emotional healing, is taking place under their experienced guidance.
>From Iquitos and the jungle, Gorman and his party move to the high mountains of Cuzco and Machu Picchu for magic mushroom and San Pedro cactus ceremonies. (Regarding San Pedro, Mother Cactus, the active alkaloid is mescaline, which opens the powers of "Seeing", including the telepathic sense of transmitting oneself across time and matter. It develops the power of perception.)
These substances are legal and accepted for their curative value in Peru.
Expedition Information at: http://www.greatmystery.org/amazon.html
The Following is Excerpted from:
BETWEEN THE CANOPY AND THE FOREST FLOOR:
Vision Plants and Medicines in Peruvian Amazonia
by Peter Gorman
WHERE THE MODERN & ANCIENT MEET
While everyone who lives in the Amazon has a knowledge of the plants they need for survival, those with the most refined knowledge of plants are those westerners call shaman-curanderos, healers, medicine men and women. In the little mestizo river village of Auchyako, don Julio is the local curandero. On the tributary of the Yivari on which most of the Matses live, Pablo and his cousin Wilfredo are the healers. And despite never having met them, what don Julio has in common with Pablo and Wilfredo is that they all view plants as sentient beings. Though a strange concept to the western mind, it is common among plant healers throughout the world. That belief is the point at which the science of ethnobotany meets the spiritualism of the shaman. For don Julio, who spent several years apprenticing to a healer, access to the intelligence of plant life-among other things-is gained through ayahuasca. For Pablo and Wilfredo, those portals are crossed by dreaming. According to Wilfredo, the two of them "studied plant medicines every day for two years with an old man at Buenas Lomas, a big Matses village. The old man is dead now, but Pablo and I know the plants." After their initial studies they learned to dream. According to both, dreaming involves long hours of attention to specific plants, learning to identify them by the insects and animals which associate with them, learning their reproductive cycles, and finally by physically sleeping near them until the plants allow you to dream them. Pablo and Wilfredo say the plant gives you permission to use it as a curative by allowing you to dream the illnesses it treats, and the method of treatment. Once again, to westerners this is a foreign concept. With our awareness of chemical composition and physical reaction, it's difficult to accept that a plant that is used to treat a foot fungus in one village by Pablo will not treat the same fungus in another village by Wilfredo. Yet in several medicinal plant collecting trips with both of them, I saw few of the same plants used to treat similar illnesses, a testimony to their different dreams. Both acknowledge that the plants themselves have the capability of treating illnesses, but say that without the plant's expressed approval through the dream, the results will be considerably less effective. To aid the dreaming, the Matses use a psychoactive snuff they call nu-nu. Similar to the virola snuffs used by indigenous peoples throughout northwestern Amazonia, nu-nu is made by mixing the dried and pulverized leaves of an as-yet-unclassified wild tobacco, with the ashes of the soft inner bark of a tree in the Macao family; occasionally, other leaves are added as well. The result, a bright green snuff, is blown with force through a hollow reed tube by one man into the nostrils of another. On occasion, as many as 20 half-gram "blows" may be administered. When it hits, nu-nu hurts. It feels as though it will take the back of your head off, and leads to sometimes violent coughing and spitting up of dark green phlegm. But in moments, a pervasive calm comes over the user, and fleeting visions of extreme clarity occur. The visions are often of good places to hunt, or new areas in the forest where medicines can be found. Following the visions, the user is generally giddy for a short time, and then back to normal. Though the Matses most often use nu-nu for hunting visions, it is also a vital element in plant dreaming. According to Pablo, nu-nu helps make the plants receptive to those who wish to communicate with them. The first time the notion of plant communication was presented to me, I didn't know what to make of it: I was out with Pablo, on the way to making an animal trap. I had a headache, and he noticed it. Moments later he pulled two leaves off a vine growing up a tree trunk and rubbed them vigorously into my temples. He actually rubbed the skin raw enough to draw a little blood, then had me hold the leaves in place there. In minutes the headache vanished. His cure worked so well that I asked if he had others. He laughed and said he did, and began to point things out as we walked. As I later learned was typical for him, he would act out the infirmity as he discussed the treatment. Aware I'd stumbled on a great chance, I collected leaves, flowers and bark from the plants he discussed. Back at his village after the trap was set, I laid out all of the plants on the tree bark floor of his large hut, then got my tape recorder and camera ready. There was a mestizo woman in the camp who spoke Matses and agreed to act as my translator. I asked her to ask Pablo to begin discussing the plants again, which she did. Pablo was silent for a minute then broke into a wide grin and responded. I asked my translator what he'd said. "He says he introduced you to the plants, but now you have to make your own friends with them." I asked her what he was talking about; she relayed the message. "He says you should go sleep with them. Make friends with them and dream them. Then you won't need him to explain what they are for."
Information regarding the expeditions with Peter Gorman this August is at:
http://www.greatmystery.org/amazon.html
Addison Terry, after returning from being with Peter emailed that: "My trip was one of the richest experiences of my life. Peter put extraordinary effort into seeing that everyone got exactly what they wanted.this trip is only for people with open minds, and if you bring that with you, Peter will show you the Amazon that few other gringos have had the privilege of seeing. I would go back on another expedition with Peter in a heartbeat."
For information about: -The Prophets Conference Victoria: Scientists, Healers, Poets & Mystics -The Initiation In The Mayan Consciousness with Mayan Elder Hunbatz Men -The Prophets Conference Florida Keys: Healers and Heroes
Visit http://www.greatmystery.org
7/6/01
1:22:45 PM
SEARCHING FOR THE DOG TAGS' OWNERS
Two Florida men are looking for the families of the men who once owned 600 dog tags they found in Vietnam.
They have found one mother of a 1968 casualty and gave her the tags on the Fourth of July.
"This is a miracle. I just hope other families have found the peace that I have felt today," said Ruth Decker, of Punta Gorda, Fla., who turned 79 Wednesday. "The Lord had his hand in this from the beginning. The fact that it has all happened on my birthday is just amazing."
Her son, Marine Lance Cpl. Allan George Decker, died on patrol Aug. 25, 1968.
More than three decades later, Jim Gain, co-owner of an Orlando freight company, and Rob Stiff, a magician, were traveling in Vietnam looking for business opportunities. They were looking around in a market not normally frequented by tourists when they spotted bunches of dog tags dangling on a string.
That was in January. They returned in May and bought 600 tags for $180. "But to the families of the soldiers, they are priceless," Stiff said. "It was simple. The tags belonged at home, not in Vietnam."
The two men have been trying to match the tags to families. They enlisted the help of Rep. Ric Keller, R-Fla., and the Defense Department, who helped them track Ruth Decker to Punta Gorda, Fla., where she lives.
xxxx
“Why didn’t the United States Military track down these dog tags in Viet Nam and present them to the proper families. They only had 33 years to do so. You’d think that’s the least they could do, for someone who gave his life for you.” ME
7/6/01
1:06:50 PM
Genetically modified canola becoming a weed
WINNIPEG - Western farmers are struggling with a new pest in their fields – a crop that was supposed to make their lives easier.
Genetically modified (GM) canola is appearing in farmers' fields where it wasn't planted, and because the plant has been engineered to resist conventional herbicides, it's tough to kill.
Agricultural scientists suspect that the plants spread through cattle manure. The seeds travel through an animal's digestive tract and are deposited on the soil, where they germinate.
"The GM canola has, in fact, spread much more rapidly than we thought it would," said Martin Entz, a plant scientist at the University of Manitoba. "It's absolutely impossible to control."
Ottawa approved GM canola in 1996, and at the time it did consider the possibility that it could become a weed. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency describes the current problem as "a nuisance" and has advised farmers to "use another chemical."
But the alternative chemicals can kill farmers' intended crops, and in some cases, the GM canola appears to be resistant to the other chemicals.
Monsanto, which created on of the GM canola strains, says that if farmers' call the company, they'll send out a team to manually pull up the weeds. But Martin Phillipson, a University of Saskatchewan law professor, said that Monsanto may be liable for damages if their GM canola continues to spread.
7/6/01
1:01:17 PM
UTNE WEB WATCH
The Best of the Alternative Web
GM CANOLA BECOMING A WEED
CBC News
-- Canadian farmers are struggling with a new pest in their fields -- a genetically modified crop that was supposed to make their lives easier.
A GRID UPON THE EARTH
Photographs by Jim Wark/ Text by Tom Huber, The Amicus Journal -- While man creates his forms in primitive blocks of symmetry, nature rarely is so basic in its wonderful construction.
TYING THE KNOT: IS MARRIAGE OUTDATED?
by Sam Boykin, Creative Loafing Charlotte
-- Is the institution of marriage on its way out? With the divorce rate in the U.S. climbing to nearly 50 percent and the number of unmarried partner households skyrocketing, many people question the relevance of marriage in today's society. Sam Boykin examines the future of matrimony.
Links to the above articles: http://www.utne.com/webwatch
7/6/01
12:58:43 PM
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
"We Cover the Earth For You"
BUSH PROPOSES DRILLING FOR OIL IN GULF OF MEXICO
WASHINGTON, DC, July 5, 2001 (ENS) - The Bush administration has announced it will open a previously untouched 1.5 million acre span of the Gulf of Mexico to oil and natural gas drilling - the first new leases offered in more than a decade. The new energy exploration was tailored to avoid Florida waters, heading off conflicts between President George W. Bush and his brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-05-07.html
SOUTHERN PERU SHAKEN AGAIN
LIMA, Peru, July 5, 2001 (ENS) - Southern Peru was struck again today with an earthquake just two weeks after a severe quake left 115 dead, 1,600 injured, and nearly 90,000 people homeless.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-05-04.html
CLIMATE CHANGE LINKED TO UK FLOODS AND DROUGHT
LONDON, United Kingdom, July 5, 2001 (ENS) - The UK Environment Agency warned today that climate change, along with the extremes in weather that it leads to, is causing serious problems.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://www.ens-news.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-05-03.html
BUYING GREEN IN EUROPE MADE EASIER FOR PUBLIC AGENCIES
BRUSSELS, Belgium, July 5, 2001 (ENS) - Buying energy efficient or recycled goods and services became easier for government agencies in Europe today.
In a move that could lighten the burden of waste and energy consumption across all 15 nations of the European Union, the European Commission defined the legally correct way for European public agencies to make environmentally sensitive purchases.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-05-02.html
WHALE OF A POLITICAL FIGHT GRIPS WHALING COMMISSION
LONDON, United Kingdom, July 5, 2001 (ENS) - A key battle has begun in this year's International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting, as its scientific committee wrestles over the most populous baleen whale stock - Antarctic minkes.
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-05-01.html
WHILE WE WERE OUT: THE WEEK IN REVIEW
Japan Waffles on Kyoto Protocol
Supreme Court Grants New Rights to Property Owners
House Votes to Ban Great Lakes Oil Drilling
Bush Promotes Energy Conservation at The White House
Energy Department Pledges $25 Million to Carbon Sequestration
Amtrak Will Spend Millions on Environmental Upgrades
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2001/2001L-07-05-06.html
7/6/01
12:51:44 PM
Planet Ark World Environment News
Frito-Lay says no StarLink in white corn chips - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11452
Environmental groups slam Bush in radio advert campaign - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11453
FDA probes plant that made chips with StarLink corn - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11454
Shopping - How to cool it - for less - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11456
UK study shows policy change needed to help cut CO2 - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11461
Japan says October is deadline for Kyoto treaty - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11462
Germany confident of deal with Japan on climate - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11458
German nuke waste shipment next week - Greenpeace - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11459
Brazil's lone Green congressman abandons party - BRAZIL http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11457
EU's Palacio says phasing out N-power irresponsible - BELGIUM http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11455
Australia refuses to come clean on Kyoto position - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11460
Mobil investigates Australia petrol spill - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11463
7/5/01
5:52:54 PM
The Nation
Could the State Department's antidrug contractors in South America possibly be dabbling in narcotics trafficking? A key part of the US's $1.3 billion contribution to Plan Colombia--the scheme that will supposedly expedite the end of Colombia's civil war--calls for the use of private contractors to fly airborne missions against both the fields that grow coca and poppy and the labs that process them.
Now DynCorp, whose private pilots police the Andes on the State Department's behalf, is coming under scrutiny for incriminating information revealed in a DEA document--information that calls into question both the ethics of DynCorp and the feasibilty of the US's current drug policy.
For the full story, read investigative reporter Jason Vest's explosive web exclusive, "DynCorp's Drug Problem." Now available only at:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=special&s=vest20010703
And, don't miss the host of recent articles of interest still available, including Christopher Hitchens on Henry Kissinger; David Corn on Elliott Abrams; Molly Ivins on George W. Bush; Richard Kim on Andrew Sullivan; Scott Sherman on Al Sharpton; Martin Duberman on Ronald Radosh and Victor Navasky on Cold War Ghosts. All accessible at:
7/5/01
5:50:11 PM
Public Citizen
DOE Should Unify and Extend Deadlines for Comment on Proposed Nuclear Dump Document
Dual Deadlines for Comment Period on Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement Are Confusing and Inequitable
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Public Citizen has requested that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) unify and extend the deadlines for public comment on the Supplement to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The current situation is confusing and inequitable, and further discredits the DOE's process for evaluating the Yucca Mountain repository proposal.
On May 11, the DOE initiated a 45-day comment period on the supplement, which addresses changes in the repository design proposal. Many concerned citizens and public interest organizations, including Public Citizen, expressed concern over this very short comment period, given the highly technical nature of the document. In response, the DOE extended the comment period by 11 days to July 6.
Meanwhile, in recent weeks, the DOE realized that 700 addresses had been erroneously omitted from its mailing list when the supplement was distributed in early May. In what Public Citizen views as an ill-conceived effort to compensate for this blunder, the DOE has now extended the deadline for these parties only until August 13. The first token 11-day extension failed to address real concerns for meaningful public participation, and the DOE's decision to selectively offer an additional extension only compounds this problem.
"This situation is not only confusing, but also inequitable," said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program, in a letter to Lake Barrett, acting director of the DOE's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. "We urge you to unify the new deadlines for public comment by further extending the general comment period until at least August 13." A copy of the letter is available at
http://www.citizen.org/cmep/RAGE/radwaste/ltrextension.htm
Other concerned members of the public who are not on any of DOE's mailing lists and have only recently accessed the document have not been afforded any extension. Also, since it is likely that some of the people originally omitted from the DOE's mailing list found other ways to acquire the document before it was mailed to them on June 25, the selective extension arbitrarily grants these individuals the benefit of a longer comment period, while denying the same to other interested stakeholders.
"Given the national significance of the Yucca Mountain Project, public participation must be taken seriously and processes must be conducted with integrity," Hauter's letter said. "Unless corrected, the unacceptably short comment period and incongruous deadlines will further erode public confidence in the Department of Energy's Yucca Mountain Project activities."
Yucca Mountain is the government's proposed storage site for high-level nuclear waste produced by commercial nuclear power plants and at nuclear weapons facilities. Located about 80 miles from Las Vegas, Yucca Mountain is currently the only site the DOE is considering. However, concerns exist that the storage casks will leak, radioactively contaminating the surrounding environment and endangering public health. The Supplement to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement is required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.
For more information, please visit http://www.Citizen.org
7/5/01
5:49:34 PM
An Indian beauty queen is urging an American millionaire not to sell his black rhino to a South African hunting ranch.
The Press Trust of India news agency reports that Aishwarya Rai, a former Miss World and now a movie star, sent a letter asking David Laylin -- president of Speedtech Instruments, based in Great Falls, Va. -- not to sell his endangered black rhino for use in hunting outside a ranch in Johannesburg. The 24-year-old animal is called "Baixinha," which means "Pretty One," and is so tame that it eats directly from the hands of visitors at the game farm where it is being kept.
"I am writing ... to ask you neither to sell Baixinha, an endangered rhino in South Africa, to a hunter so that she can be killed and have her head mounted on a wall nor hold her hostage for money," she said.
A Norwegian hunter reportedly offered more than $60,000 to shoot the rhino during a "canned" hunt on a ranch, the Daily Mail and Guardian newspapers said last month.
Rai asks Laylin to "release Baixinha to a sanctuary where she can live the rest of her life in peace."
Laylin was quoted by the Daily Mail and Guardian as saying he spent about $200,000 on a project to get the rhino into an active breeding program in the last 12 years. "All the conservation groups with which we discussed this matter wanted me to give Baixinha to them for free and accused me for trying to profit from an endangered species when all I was trying to do was recoup my original investment," he said.
7/5/01
3:23:30 PM
You Are Strong
You are strong when you take your grief and teach it to smile.
You are brave when you overcome your fear and help others to do the same.
You are happy when you see a flower and give it your blessing.
You are loving when your own pain does not blind you to the pain of others.
You are wise when you know the limits of your wisdom.
You are true when you admit there are times you fool yourself.
You are alive when tomorrow's hope means more to you than yesterday's mistake.
You are growing when you know what you are but not what you will become.
You are free when you are in control of yourself and do not wish to control others.
You are honorable when you find your honor is to honor others.
You are generous when you can take as sweetly as you can give.
You are humble when you do not know how humble you are.
You are thoughtful when you see me just as I am and treat me just as you are.
You are merciful when you forgive in others the faults you condemn in yourself.
You are beautiful when you don't need a mirror to tell you.
You are rich when you never need more than what you have.
You are you when you are at peace with who you are not.
7/5/01
3:13:50 PM
LIFE AT THE EDGE OF THE ABYSS
by Paul Lycett
For those people who are old enough to remember what was said about the coming age of nuclear fission:
* "unlimited energy"
* "cheap energy"
* "CLEAN energy" - Does anyone still believe this?
It is human arrogance and greed that turns a blind eye to the potential problems that a new technology creates.
Bio-technology is even more dangerous than nuclear fission!
* Why?
Nuclear fission by products (ie. radioactive waste ) are produced under direct human control. Even so called accidents are still under our control. Shutdown nuclear plants, don't use nuclear bombs, etc. and there is no nuclear waste.
The situation is different with bio-technology because once genes are introduced into a plant or animal they are self reproducing (ie. man has no control over them). The transgenic genes will freely move from the engineered plants to the closely related wild species ( ie. organic non bio-engineered agricultural crops).
* So what is the problem?
A gene does not control the synthesis of just one protein but many. In any given plant cell a particular part of the gene could be turned on, but in another plant another part of the gene could be turned on. Each part could produce a different protein. Here lies the potential problem - this unknown production of new protein material in weed plants and non bio-engineered agricultural plants could produce food that humans are allergic too. Just think how many people are allergic to peanuts, fish, etc.! Whole major food species could become hazardous to many people and a technology which was to increase food production for the world will actually decrease food production.
* The risks are too great!
No food plant or animal should be bio-engineered! Humankind does not need the extra food production!
+ Mankind needs population control!
Only population control is the long term answer to ecological problems of resource shortages, waste, pollution, energy and food production.
Consumer Alert: The governments of Canada and US in their great wisdom have decided to allow bio-engineered plant material to be blended in with non bio-engineered material - YOU ARE ALREADY EATING BIO-ENGINEERED FOOD IF IT IS NOT CERTIFIED ORGANIC!
This is a Crisis Stituation for Organic Food Production
Organic food production standards do not allow the use of bio-engineered seeds but in time the bio-engineered genes will drift into to the seeds that we use for organic production. This is unconstitutional because it takes away our freedom to choose what we eat.
The bio-engineering technology is using the whole human race and the planetary eco-system as its test subjects: there will be no turning back, life will change. Arrogance and greed now controls our destiny.
* What can we do to adapt to this future stituation?
+ 1. - Challenge bio-engineering of plants and animals on constitutional grounds since it takes away our freedom of choice.
+ 2. - Send a copy of this page to your government representative.
+ 3. - Save non bio-engineered seeds for future use.
+ 4. - Consumers should report any allergic responses to bio-engineered foods.
http://www.anet.com/~manytimes/page49.htm
7/5/01
2:21:40 PM
Stolen Harvest
by Vandana Shiva
(Zed Books, London, 2000)
Excerpt from Chapter One: THE HIJACKING OF THE GLOBAL FOOD SUPPLY
For centuries Third World farmers have evolved crops and given us the diversity of plants that provide us nutrition. Indian farmers evolved 20,000 varieties of rice through their innovation and breeding. They bred rice varieties such as Basmati. They bred red rice and brown rice and black rice. They bred rice that grew 18ft tall in the Gangetic floodwaters, and saline-resistant rice that could be grown in the coastal water . . .
Free exchange of seed among farmers has been the basis of maintaining biodiversity as well as food security. The exchange is based on cooperation and reciprocity . . . It is an accumulation of tradition, or knowledge of how to work the seed . . .
New seeds are first worshipped, and only then are they planted. New crops are worshipped before being consumed. Festivals held before sowing seeds as well as harvest festivals, celebrated in the fields, symbolise people'sintimacy with nature. For the farmer, the field is the mother; worshipping the field is a sign of gratitude toward the earth, which, as mother, feeds the millions of life forms that are her children.
But new intellectual-property-rights regimes, which are being universalised through the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights Agreement of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), allow corporations to usurp the knowledge of the seed and monopolise it by claiming it as their private property. Over time, this results in corporate monopolies over the seed itself.
Corporations like RiceTec of the United States are claiming patents on Basmati rice. Soybean, which evolved in East Asia, has been patented by Calgene, which is now owned by Monsanto. Calgene also owns patents on mustard, a crop of India origin. Centuries of collective innovation by farmers and peasants are being hijacked as corporations claim intellectual-property rights on these and other seeds and plants.
"FREE TRADE" OR "FORCED TRADE"
Today ten corporations control 32 percent of the commercial seed market, valued at $23 billion, and 100 percent of the market for genetically engineered, or transgenic seeds. These corporations also control the global agrichemical and pesticide market. Just five corporations control the global trade in grain . . .
This monopolistic control over agricultural production, along with structural adjustment policies that brutally favour exports, results in floods of exports of foods from the United States and Europe to the Third World. As a result of the North American Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the proportion of Mexico'sfood supply that is imported has increased from 20 percent in 1992 to 43 percent in 1996. After 18 months of NAFTA, 2.2 million Mexicans have lost their jobs, and 40 million have fallen into extreme poverty. One out of two peasants is not getting enough to eat. As Victor Suares has stated, "Eating more cheaply on imports is not eating at all for the poor in Mexico." . . .
Trade liberalisation of agriculture was introduced in India in 1991 as part of a World Bank/International Monetary Fund (IMF) structural adjustment package . . . Aggressive corporate advertising campaigns, including promotional films shown in villages on "video vans", were launched to sell new, hybrid seeds to farmers. Even gods, goddesses, and saints were not spared: In Pujab, Monsanto sells its products using the image of Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion. Corporate, hybrid seeds began to replace the local farmers" varieties.
The new hybrid seeds, being vulnerable to pests, required more pesticides. Extremely poor farmers bought both seeds and chemicals on credit from the same company. When the crops failed due to heavy pest incidence or large-scale seed failure, many peasants committed suicide by consuming the same pesticides that had gotten them into debt in the first place . . .
STEALING NATURE'S HARVEST
Global corporations are not just stealing the harvest of farmers. They are stealing nature's harvest through genetic engineering and patents on life forms.
Genetically engineered crops manufactured by corporations pose serious ecological risks. Crops such as Monsanto'" Roundup Ready soybeans, designed to be resistant to herbicides, lead to the destruction of biodiversity and increased use of agrochemicals. They can also create highly invasive "superweeds" by transferring the genes for herbicide resistance to weeds. Crops designed to be pesticide factories, genetically engineered to produce toxins and venom with genes from bacteria, scorpions, snakes and wasps, can threaten non-pest species and can contribute to the emergence of resistance in pests and hence the creation of "superpests". In every application of genetic engineering, food is being stolen from other species for the maximisation of corporate profits.
To secure patents on life forms and living resources, corporations must claim seeds and plants to be their "inventions" and hence their property. Thus corporations like Cargill and Monsanto see nature'sweb of life and cycles of renewal as "theft" of their property. During the debate about the entry of Cargill into India in 1992, the Cargill chief executive stated, "We bring Indian farmers smart technologies, which prevent bees from usurping the pollen". During the United Nations Biosafety Negotiations, Monsanto circulated literature that claimed that "weeds steal the sunshine". A worldview that defines pollination as "theft by bees" and claims that diverse plants "steal" sunshine is one aimed at stealing nature'sharvest, by replacing open, pollinated varieties with hybrids and sterile seeds, and destroying biodiverse flora with herbicides such as Monsanto's Roundup.
This is a worldview based on scarcity. A worldview of abundance is the worldview of the women in India who leave food for ants on their doorstep, even as they create the most beautiful art in kolums, mandalas, and rangoli with rice flour. Abundance is the worldview of peasant women who weave beautiful designs of paddy to hang up for birds when the birds do not find grain in the fields. This view of abundance recognises that, in giving food to other beings and species, we maintain conditions for our own food security. It is the recognition in the Isho Upanishad that the universe is the creation of the Supreme Power means for the benefit of (all) creation. Each individual life form must learn to enjoy its benefits by farming a part of the system in close relation with other species. Let not any one species encroach upon others" rights. The Isho Upanishad also says,
"a selfish man over-utilising the resources of nature to satisfy his own ever-increasing needs is nothing but a thief, because using resources beyond one'sneeds would result in the utilisation of resources over which others have a right."
In the ecological worldview, when we consume more than we need or exploit nature on principles of greed, we are engaging in theft. In the anti-life view of agribusiness corporations, nature renewing and maintaining herself is a thief. Such a worldview replaces abundance with scarcity, fertility with sterility. It makes theft from nature a market imperative, and hides it in the calculus of efficiency and productivity.
-- Excerpt from Chapter Four: MAD COWS AND SACRED COWS
When I gave a speech at the Dalai Lama's 60th birthday celebration, he wrote me two beautiful lines of compassion: "All sentient beings, including the small insects, cherish themselves. All have the right to overcome suffering and achieve happiness. I therefore pray that we show love and compassion to all."
What is our responsibility to other species? Do the boundaries between species have integrity? Or are these boundaries mere constructs that should be broken for human convenience? The call to "transgress boundaries" advocated by both patriarchal capitalists and postmodern feminists cannot be so simple. It needs to be based on a sophisticated and complex discrimination between different kinds of boundaries, an understanding of who is protected by what boundaries and whose freedom is achieved by what transgressions.
In India, cows have been treated as sacred -- as Lakshi, the goddess of wealth, and as the cosmos in which all gods and goddesses reside -- for centuries. Ecologically, the cow has been central to Indian civilisation. Both materially and conceptionally the world of Indian agriculture has built its sustainability on the integrity of the cow, considering her inviolable and sacred, seeing her as the mother of the prosperity of the food chain.
According to K.M. Munchi, India's first agriculture minister after independence from the British, cows
"are not worshiped in vain. They are the primeval agents who enrich the soil -- nature's great land transformers -- who supply organic matter that, after treatment, becomes nutrient matter of the greatest importance. In India, tradition, religious sentiment and economic needs have tried to maintain a cattle population large enough to maintain the cycle."
By using crop wastes and uncultivated land, indigenous cows do not compete with humans for food; rather, they provide organic fertiliser for fields and thus enhance food productivity. Within the sacredness of the cow lie this ecological rationale and conservation imperative. The cow is a source of cow-dung energy, nutrition and leather, and its contribution is linked to the work of women in feeding and milking cows, collecting cow dung and nurturing sick cows to health. Along with being the primary experts in animal husbandry, women are also the food processors in the traditional dairy industry, making curds, butter, ghee and buttermilk.
Indian cattle provide more food than they consume, in contrast to those in the U.S. cattle industry, in which cattle consume six times more food than they provide. In addition, every year, Indian cattle excrete 700 million tons of recoverable manure: half of this is used as fuel, liberating the thermal equivalent of 27 million tones of kerosene, 35 million tons of coal or 68 million tons of wood, all of which are scarce resources in India. The remaining half is used as fertiliser.
Two-thirds of the power requirements of Indian villages are met by cattle-dung fuel for some 80 million cattle. (Seventy million of these cattle are the male progeny of what industrial developers term 'useless' low-milk-yielding cows.) To replace animal power in agriculture, India would have to spend $1 billion annually on gas. As for other livestock produce, it may be sufficient to mention that the export of hides, skins and other products brings in $150 million annually.
Yet this highly efficient food system, based on the multiple uses of cattle, has been dismantled in the name of efficiency and development. The Green Revolution shifted agriculture's fertiliser base from renewable organic inputs to non-renewable chemical ones, making both cattle and women's work with cattle dispensable in the production of food grain . . .
Buy: Stolen Harvest by Vandana Shiva at
7/5/01
2:05:43 PM
2001 WINNIPEG - Western farmers are struggling with a new pest in their fields -a crop that was supposed to make their lives easier. Genetically modified (GM) canola is appearing in farmers' fields where it wasn't planted, and because the plant has been engineered to resist conventional herbicides, it's tough to kill. Agricultural scientists suspect that the plants spread through cattle manure. The seeds travel through an animal's digestive tract and are deposited on the soil, where they germinate. "The GM canola has, in fact, spread much more rapidly than we thought it would," said Martin Entz, a plant scientist at the University of Manitoba. "It's absolutely impossible to control." Ottawa approved GM canola in 1996, and at the time it did consider the possibility that it could become a weed. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency describes the current problem as "a nuisance" and has advised farmers to "use another chemical." But the alternative chemicals can kill farmers' intended crops, and in some cases, the GM canola appears to be resistant to the other chemicals.
Monsanto, which created on of the GM canola strains, says that if farmers' call the company, they'll send out a team to manually pull up the weeds. But Martin Phillipson, a University of Saskatchewan law professor, said that Monsanto may be liable for damages if their GM canola continues to spread. Written by CBC News Online staff Kelly Crowe reports for CBC TV
A year ago I had heard that this herbicide resistance had already been "transferred" to the weeds it was designed to kill... while leaving the grains unharmed.
So much for Monsanto and their patented Frankenstein assembly line for all our foodstuffs.
With the meats tainted with E-coli, salmonella, and mad cow disease and the crops being choked out by herbicide-resistant genes... tomorrows plate may be quite empty.
Regards,
Dave Rietz
http://www.dorway.com on aspartame, MSG, alt. sweets and prostate cancer
http://www.notmilk.com on milk and dairy
http://www.hungerstrike.com on Monsanto's rbGH shot into dairy cows
7/5/01
2:00:26 PM
Planet Ark World Environment News
Expert urges people focus in Vietnam dioxin study - VIETNAM http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11440
UPDATE - StarLink bio-corn found in white corn products - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11438
Las Vegas casinos help avert more blackouts - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11443
Group calls for more renewable energy in California - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11447
Esso says concerned over Body Shop's UK boycott move - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11437
Thai woman ahead in custody battle over lizard - THAILAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11441
UPDATE - BP to invest 120mln euros in solar cell plant in Spain - SPAIN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11445
Polish power exchange launches green futures market - POLAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11444
German cabinet approves CHP draft law - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11448
German chemicals body urges US to back Kyoto deal - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11450
Global warming treaty not doomed, Germany says - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11451
New EU law aims to double green energy by 2010 - EU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11439
Vestas set to raise stake in Spanish windpower firm - DENMARK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11446
New EU - directive makes wind a safe investment - EWEA - DENMARK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11449
Pacific Hydro starts wind power generation - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11442
7/5/01
1:57:54 PM
The Nation
Two hundred and twenty-five years ago, the revolutionaries who gathered in Philadelphia to throw off the yoke of the British monarchy were challenging more than stamp taxes and the excesses of red-coated troops. They were also rejecting the linkage of church and state, in particular the principle of "the divine right of kings" - which held that rulers were placed in positions of authority not by the people they served but by God.
As historian and Nation editorial board member Eric Foner writes, "The Revolution catalyzed a movement that transformed the meaning of religious freedom. The drive to separate church and state brought together deists like Jefferson, who hoped to erect a 'wall of separation' that would free politics and the untrammeled exercise of intellect from theological control, and members of evangelical sects, who sought to protect religion from the corrupting embrace of government and saw toleration as a way to enable men and women to lead truly Christian lives."
Now, 225 years later, George W. Bush and many in Congress seek to rip a hole in that wall of separation with so-called "faith-based initiatives." Cloaked in the pleasant language of charity and public service, these initiatives pose a genuine threat to the Church, the State and, most importantly, the people closest to the poverty line.
For more, see John Nichols's two July 4th web features: "The Revolutionary Roots of Church-State Separation" and "Independence Day in a Not-Quite 'Thoroughly Revolutionary' United States." Both exclusively available at:
http://www.thenation.com/thebeat
And for more patriotic reading, check out Nation publisher Victor Navasky's meditation on McCarthyism and beyond in "Cold War Ghosts," published in the July 16 issue of The Nation and available currently at:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010716&s=navasky
7/4/01
5:13:02 PM
Disclosure Project Events Announcement
From the Campaign For Disclosure: 2001 Tour Dates
In each city, we will begin with an exclusive showing of the 2-hour Disclosure film of 50 government and military witnesses to UFO and Extraterrestrial events and projects, followed with a presentation by Disclosure Project Director Steven M. Greer MD.
To build a grass roots campaign to push for open congressional hearings, we need your help and your support:
Campaign for Disclosure Sponsors - To bring the Campaign for Disclosure to your city will cost a modest $5000. If you can help underwrite part or all of this cost and become an individual or corporate sponsor, please contact us. You may also support the campaign anonymously. Please contribute what you can.
Become part of the local host committee - We need local volunteers to help with organizing the event, locating suitable venues for the event, getting the word out, helping during the day of the event, etc. If you can help coordinate the local Campaign for Disclosure, please lwillitts@disclosureproject.org
Local Networking - If you can help us reach local VIPs, environmental leaders, civic leaders, and potential founders, please let us know. We will be meeting with people who can help advance the Campaign in each area and need local networking support. Identify new government, military, and corporate witnesses to UFO and ET events and projects - If you can help us identify new witnesses who live in your region, we will interview and film them when we come to your city. Please help us identify more of these heroic witnesses who stand ready to testify to the truth.
If we unite in action, we can begin a new, open chapter in human history; one with new technologies for energy and propulsion without pollution; one where we go into space in peace, not with weapons. Please join us and help us today!
The Campaign for Disclosure will be coming to the following cities:
(Dates and times are tentative and subject to change based on local support and funding.)
Denver / Boulder, CO - June 23, 2001
This event was reported as a big success. Dr. Greer filled the auditorium in Boulder on the 23rd. with standing room in the isles and in the halls, (two hundred people had to be turned away). A skeptical senior space lawyer (sent to this event on the advice of Carol Rosin) said Greer is spectacular, credible, and a wonderful man. The video and Steven Greer received lasting standing ovations and many information packages were sold. Gradually the word is getting out. Those inside the government are saying what they witnessed, and how they were silenced for decades.
San Francisco, CA - July 22, 2001
Los Angeles, CA - August 4, 2001
San Diego, CA - August 5, 2001
Miami, FL - August 19, 2001
Seattle, WA - September 8, 2001
Vancouver, BC - September 9, 2001
Portland OR - September 12
Washington, DC - October 6, 2001
Charlottesville, VA - October 7, 2001
New York, NY - October 20, 2001
Boston, MA - October 21, 2001
Atlanta, GA - November 3, 2001
Asheville, NC - November 4, 2001
Phoenix, AZ - November 10, 2001
Dallas, TX - November 11, 2001
London, UK - December 8, 2001
7/4/01
5:08:34 PM
Greenpeace Occupies Menwith Hill Radar Base to Stop US Star Wars Threat
BBC NEWS
More than 100 demonstrators have broken into a major British defence site in North Yorkshire.
Greenpeace activists entered the Menwith Hill base, near Harrogate, North Yorkshire, at 0500BST in protest against American plans to use it as part of the so-called "Son of Star Wars" national missile defence programme.
Some have chained themselves to buildings or hidden around the site, while others are demonstrating by the main gate as workers arrive at the radar early warning complex.
North Yorkshire Police say they are at the incident, and a Ministry of Defence spokesman has confirmed that some arrests have been made.
A Greenpeace spokesman co-ordinating the protest said: "At the moment we have 20 people on top of the radar building, 15 on top of the water tower and another 15 in various locations around the base.
"We will stay there for as long as we possibly can."
Reports suggest that demonstrators were on the site for almost an hour before security teams reacted.
'Dangerous plan'
Protester Helen Wallace told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that she was among the group chained to the water tower.
"There are around 20 people here on top of the tower, and other people chained down below," she said.
"We are going to stay here continuing to make our point that Menwith Hill is part of Bush's dangerous Star Wars plan."
Greenpeace says one group of protesters walked straight through the main gate playing the Mission Impossible theme tune.
Some carried flags emblazoned with the message "Star Wars Starts Wars", while others dressed as missiles.
Other teams scaled three-metre fences topped with razor wire to get in.
Protester Eleanor Gordon, 30, of Manchester said: "About 30 went in through the main gates. There were only one or two security guards on duty and they were just overwhelmed.
"My team headed in the direction of a water tower and some climbed up, while others chained themselves to the bottom.
"I was locked to the bottom with chains and a padlock but eventually a group of four security officers came along, used bolt cutters to cut the chains and escorted me off the site.
"The protest may seem drastic but the effects of the Star Wars programme could be so devastating for the world that only direct action will do."
Greenpeace UK executive director Stephen Tindale, who is at Menwith Hill, said President George Bush's proposed missile defence programme was "a disaster".
He called on Prime Minister Tony Blair to turn down American requests to use UK-based sites at Menwith Hill and Fylingdales, North Yorkshire.
He said President Bush needed the two sites as the "eyes and ears" of his planned Star Wars system.
"But Bush can't install the system without Tony Blair's approval.
"We urge Mr Blair not to kowtow to Bush on such a crucial issue. He must say no to UK involvement."
He said Greenpeace had been planning the operation to enter the base for six months, but added that he had been surprised at "how easy it was to get in".
"We decided to do it today because we thought tomorrow, being American Independence Day, they would be expecting us."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1419000/1419762.stm
7/4/01
3:15:58 PM
AlterNet.org
DENYING DUBYA'S BRIBE: THE PUSH TO REJECT THE TAX REBATE
Alicia Rebensdorf, AlterNet
Those of you who voted against George W. and his tax cut can now put your money where your mouths is -- donate the $300 you'll soon get to a group hit by federal budget cuts.
BUSH'S WAR ON CHILDREN
Jonathan Rowe and Gary Ruskin, AlterNet
When kids are pitted against corporate big money in Bush's Washington, it's the kids who lose.
MY SO-CALLED MARRIAGE
Tai Moses, Metro Santa Cruz
In early summer, when weddings bloom, everyone wonders what it means to be a wife today -- even wives.
CIA GAVE $10 MILLION TO PERU'S EX-SPYMASTER
Angel Paez, The Public I
Vladimiro Montesinos, who now faces trial on murder, arms and drug trafficking charges, used millions of CIA dollars to, among other things, send guns to Colombia's FARC guerrillas.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11131
BLACK AND BLUE
Ta-Nehisi Coates, Washington Monthly Why does America's richest black suburb have some of the country's most brutal cops?
* In Human Rights USA: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=22
MADONNA AND THE CONTRADICTIONS OF SEX FOR SALE
Lara Riscol, AlterNet
When it comes to profiting off sex, there's not much difference between pop stars like Madonna and desperate teen strippers -- except for subtlety and fortune.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11136
SPRAY OR ELSE: U.S. CUTS NO SLACK IN COLUMBIA
Philip Smith, DRCNet
Despite rising opposition to Plan Columbia, U.S. holds a hard line, pressuring President Pastrana to continue aerial spraying of coca fields -- or else.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11121
WATCH WHAT YOU SAY ABOUT BANAMEX
Cynthia Cotts, Village Voice
Al Giordano, publisher of NarcoNews.com, is being sued for linking Citigroup's new Mexican affiliate, Banamex, and its chairman to drug running and money laundering.
* In Drug Reporter: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=17
MEDIA MASH: LAST CALL FOR WEBBY VOTING; LOVE THAT BBC
The Masher, AlterNet
This week from the Masher: Webbys Alive and Kicking ... How Do I Love Thee, BBC? ... White Male Conservatives on Fox ... Brugmann Basking with Egg on His Face.
* In Media Culture: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=19
SELL A GLOWSTICK, GO TO PRISON
Janelle Brown, Salon
Authorities are shutting down 21st-century raves using 1980s crack-house laws -- and turning pacifiers and Vicks VapoRub into the new drug paraphernalia.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11116
BIG BROTHER IS SPELL-CHECKING YOU
Dan Rubinstein, Vue Weekly
Since when is Wal-Mart in the dictionary? Since spell-checkers have fallen under corporate influence.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11130
EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT GMOS
Rachel Massey, Environmental Research Foundation
Know what you're eating! "Biotech: The Basics" clearly explains the process of genetic modification and its related hazards.
* In Enviro Health: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=18
FAST TRACK IS BACK
David Moberg, In These Times
The next big domestic political battle -- fast track -- would push trade deals through Congress with minimal debate. It was defeated before, but the new politics is clamouring for free trade.
* In Globalization: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=21
CORN: REVISITING BIG GOP LIES
David Corn, AlterNet
The ideological warriors of Washington are clashing once more over ancient history -- this time, the Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill confrontation of ten years ago.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11127
DURST: DUBYA'S FIRST REPORT CARD
Will Durst, AlterNet
History: C -- Confused Ancient History with Modern History. Attidue: S -- Works well with others. Little Jimmy Jeffords excepted. $300 per person buyoff didn't hurt.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11118
DRUG WAR BRIEFS: STRIKE HARD
Kevin Nelson, AlterNet
China executes drug offenders in mass celebration, Portland is astir after a pro-pot ad runs in local paper, and two DC men are the first to face felony charges for pot possesion.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11126
BERGER: THE GREAT WHITE MYTH OF KENNEWICK MAN
Knute Berger, AlterNet
First, Euro-Americans colonized the continent; now a 9,000 year old skeleton tempts some mythmakers to colonize the past.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11129
7/4/01
2:57:20 PM
MediaChannel.org
(UN)COVERING TIBET: A MEDIACHANNEL EXCLUSIVE
How does news get in and out of a region where radio signals are jammed and speaking to reporters can be a crime? A roundtable discussion with journalists and activists for World Tibet Day, July 7
http://www.mediachannel.org/views/roundtables/tibet_intro.shtml
JOURNALISTS DISSECT JOURNALISM
In this column from the News Dissector archives, journalists around the world responded to last year's AOL Time Warner merger, weighing in on the state - and future - of journalism
http://www.mediachannel.org/views/dissector/disaffected.shtml
DAILY MEDIA NEWS
Breaking news stories about the international media, from mainstream and alternative sources.
http://www.mediachannel.org/news/today/
**FROM OUR AFFILIATES**
WATCH OUT - YOUR TV'S WATCHING!
The interactive television industry is developing technology to collect detailed personal information on viewers, while it is already lobbying against government intervention.
http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#itv
FOX HUNTING
Rupert Murdoch's Fox News cable channel is "The Most Biased Name in News," claims a new report, which targets a show whose guests are almost all white, male and Republican.
http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#fox
BEYOND PRODUCT PLACEMENT
Some of cinema's celebrated actors and directors are finding art in "advertainment" - short, online films where the real star is a product. >From Alternet's MediaCulture page, a collaboration with MediaChannel.
http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#advert
MONOPOLY'S MEDIA STRATEGY
Last week the breakup of Microsoft was canceled because the judge who ordered it talked too much to reporters, decided an appeals court. Plus: debates and discussions on Microsoft from the MediaChannel archives
http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#microsoft
7/3/01
9:49:48 PM
EPA Rule For Yucca Mountain Faces Two Lawsuits
by Environmental News Network
Diagram of tunnels within Yucca Mountain where radioactive waste would be stored.
The state of Nevada Nuclear Projects Agency and a coalition of national and Nevada-based environmental and public interest groups filed separate lawsuits June 27, challenging the new radiation protection standards for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's radiation protection rule, which takes effect July 13, sets the standards by which the site's suitability to contain radioactive waste will be determined. At issue is where the standards will apply and for how long.
The petitions for judicial review were filed in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, by the state agency and the Citizen Action Coalition of Indiana, Citizen Alert, Natural Resources Defense Council, Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force, Nevada Desert Experience, Nuclear Information and Resource Service, and Public Citizen.
They allege that the EPA was wrong to set radiation protection standards for Yucca Mountain that last for only 10,000 years. The standards should be set for hundreds of thousands of years because the waste will be radioactive for at least that long, the plaintiffs claim.
Department of Energy scientists have estimated that peak emissions of radiation can be expected up to 800,000 years into the future.
John Hadder, northern Nevada coordinator with plaintiff group Citizen Alert, said, "This undermines the purpose of radiation protection standards, by presuming that a repository at Yucca Mountain will not contain nuclear waste throughout the thousands of years it remains dangerous."
Another source of contention is the 11 mile radius from the site where a dose of no more than 15 millirems per year is mandated. The 11 mile radius allows repository designs "to rely on dilution and dispersion rather than containment of radioactive waste," the groups said.
They don't want the repository in Nevada at all, but as standards are set, the radius of containment should be much smaller, they believe.
"Exposure limits are built around expected levels of radioactive contamination leaking from the dump, thus establishing a regulatory framework for legalized nuclear pollution in Nevada," Hadder said.
In the state's lawsuit, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects Robert Loux, says the EPA's standards fail to satisfy the agency's duty to protect the health and safety of the people of Nevada from releases from radioactive materials stored or disposed of at the Yucca Mountain repository.
Loux said the rule ignores Nevada's advice to the EPA that people may one day live much closer to Yucca Mountain than they do now. "It is not reasonable to assume that for even hundreds of years into the future that people will continue to live only where people live today," the suit says.
Loux's suit complains that EPA language expressing the "intent of isolating it [radioactive waste] for as long as reasonably possible" in the Yucca Mountain Rule "is arbitrary and capricious and violates the letter and intent of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act to the detriment of public health and safety."
Yucca Mountain is the only site under consideration by the Department of Energy as a potential repository for high-level nuclear waste from weapons facilities and commercial nuclear power plants across the country. The waste is now stored on-site at these facilities.
If the Yucca Mountain repository is built, the hot waste would be transported by road and rail to Nevada. Nevada Congresswoman Shelley Berkley, a Democrat, has begun a campaign to learn the exact routes by which nuclear waste would travel on its way to Yucca Mountain.
"We have advocated a protective standard at all stages of the process leading up to this rule being finalized. We are now bringing this issue before the courts because our concerns have not been addressed," said David Adelman, senior attorney with the plaintiff Natural Resources Defense Council.
"We cannot accept a rule that sets artificially weak standards to allow a fundamentally flawed project to move forward," he said.
Meanwhile, the EPA's national ombudsman, an independent investigator within the agency, began an inquiry June 25 into the scientific basis for the EPA's Yucca Mountain radiation health standards.
Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn is opposed to the location of the repository in Nevada as are most state elected officials. In April, the governor said a new report by the U.S. Inspector General's office showed evidence that the process to find a scientifically suitable site for the storage of high-level nuclear waste has been tainted by bias targeting Yucca Mountain.
"The idea that political concerns could, in any way, affect a process with such severe health and safety ramifications for the people of Nevada is shocking and disheartening," Governor Guinn said. "The only acceptable standards for the evaluation of high-level nuclear waste storage are scientific."
7/3/01
9:07:31 PM
Planet Ark World Environment News
US, Vietnam to hold Agent Orange/dioxin conference - VIETNAM http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11429
Where's the beef been? PETA protests Wendy's for answers - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11421
States ask Ford to remove mercury switches - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11424
Bush administraton to spend $25 mln on global warming projects - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11425
Group calls for more renewable energy in Calif - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11420
Bush Gulf drilling decision sets up Florida battle - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11436
UPDATE - UK report says 60,000 affected by Turkish dam plan - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11422
Body Shop joins UK Esso boycott over Kyoto stance - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11423
Mercury poison found in shark's fins - report - THAILAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11432
Japan has pivotal role to play in Kyoto pact talks - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11431
Saving crop diversity key to winning war on hunger - ITALY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11427
Iceland rejoins IWC, but exempt from whaling ban - ICELAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11428
Greenpeace protests at US embassy in Berlin - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11430
FEATURE - Germany struggles to turn dirt into cash - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11426
UPDATE - E.German nuclear waste site watched by govt - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11435
French Polynesia offers whales safe waters - FRENCH POLYNESIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11434
EU parliament accepts air pollution compromise - EU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11433
7/3/01
8:11:42 PM
TomPaine.com
PATRIOTISM IN THE EYE OF THE POET
by Lloyd Schwartz
"Independence Day" celebrates national values -- including our freedom to speak what we each believe. Poet Lloyd Schwartz looks at a poem that depicts this kind of patriotism and its underlying painfulness: Robert Bly's "Sleet Storm on the Merritt Parkway."
http://www.tompaine.com/opinion/2001/06/19/index.html
THE CONSUMING AMERICAN DREAM
by M. W. Guzy
Twenty years ago, few people had VCRs, cable TV, cell phones, pagers or computers. Today, these are all necessities. The American Dream has evolved, and simple pleasures have been sacrificed to the blind pursuit of material nirvana. http://www.tompaine.com/opinion/2001/06/27/2.html
CAFFEINE AND THE BODY
by Bennett Alan Weinberg and Bonnie K. Bealer
Caffeine is like the air. You don't see it and usually hardly notice it, but it's there all the same, and it becomes part of you in a metabolic exchange involving every cell in your body. An overwhelming majority of people in almost every nation use it regularly. But scientists still need to answer fundamental questions about how caffeine effects our bodies and our minds.
http://www.tompaine.com/opinion/2001/06/27/index.html
7/3/01
7:51:55 PM
Public Citizen
FTAA "Draft" Text Made Public Today Is Missing Vital Information; Has Been Released Too Late
Sanitized Text Released After Seven Years of FTAA Talks Shows That the Proposal Would Expand NAFTA Flaws to 31 More Nations
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Some text of a controversial trade agreement government officials promised to release in mid-April was made public today, but the version that was released lacks vital information and represents only a fraction of the entire pact, Public Citizen said today.
Government officials agreed to a one-time release of a negotiating text of the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), hoping to eliminate criticism about the secrecy of the FTAA process. However, today's "release" of a partial text for negotiations, which have been under way behind closed doors for seven years, is likely to fan growing opposition to the proposed pact.
"This was supposed to be a PR move aimed at calming FTAA opposition, but the governments obviously have put out a fragment of the total agreement, one that has been sanitized by eliminating vital information," said Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch. "They say that this release is a one-time event and future texts will not necessarily be made be available.
"This one-time public relations stunt will not deceive the broad-based civil society opposition to negotiating a trade agreement, which is being drawn up at the behest of special interests who flatly refuse to address the concerns of environmentalists, labor organizations or consumers when they negotiate secret agreements."
The FTAA text made available is only 434 pages, even though it is a "bracketed text," which means that it contains several versions or options for many clauses. Yet public documents reveal that FTAA is slated to cover the same vast array of issues as NAFTA, with nine FTAA negotiating groups under way for years. Given that the NAFTA text is more than 700 pages long, the FTAA text released today is only a fraction of the whole agreement.
"Even with a sizeable chunk of the negotiating text remaining concealed from the public, it is clear that FTAA is all about cramming NAFTA-on-steroids down the throats of people from Toronto to Tierra del Fuego," Wallach said. "FTAA was supposed to represent the improved renegotiation of NAFTA. Instead it worsens and expands NAFTA's worst provisions."
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.
For more information, please visit http://www.Citizen.org
7/3/01
7:43:15 PM
Cold Water Flow From Arctic to Atlantic Is Falling
by Andrew C. Revkin
Scientists have detected a substantial drop in the last 50 years in the flow of cold deep sea water leaving the Arctic and pouring into the Atlantic between Iceland and Scotland.
Climate experts say the obscure current, flowing south 2,000 feet beneath the surface, is one of the engines that drive the worldwide oceanic conveyer belt that also carries sun-warmed surface water north toward the pole. Because the outflow of cold deep water has diminished, the influx of warm surface water that usually replaces it also has to have declined. That decrease could explain a recent cooling of some coastal regions near the Norwegian Sea, said the authors of the study, which is described in today's issue of Nature.
The study was conducted by scientists in Norway, Scotland and the Faroe Islands, 400 miles east of Iceland, and centered on the flow of water over a submerged ridge east of those islands. The changes there mesh with observations of major shifts in temperature, sea ice, currents and winds above the Arctic Circle and match some computer simulations of global warming. But the scientists noted that the natural cycles in the area between the Arctic and the Atlantic remained poorly understood. They said it was too soon to say climate change caused by human activity had changed the flow.
Other climate experts cautioned that it was premature to predict whether the change could have broader effects on Europe, because other influences besides sea temperature contribute to the generally mild conditions there.
"If I lived in the Faroes, I might be worried," said Dr. Richard Seager, a senior research scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University. "But in Paris I wouldn't be worried."
Dr. Knut Aagaard, an oceanographer at the Polar Research Center of the University of Washington in Seattle, said the research benefited from a focus on a remote, but vital junction in the ocean's circulatory system, the fairly narrow passages between Greenland and Europe that link Arctic waters with the North Atlantic.
Enormous amounts of water affected by conditions far to the north flow through the gaps, Dr. Aagaard said, adding: "These constrictions give you a wonderful way to monitor what's going on over larger areas. If you want to know changes in a big building, stand by the front door and you'll get a feel for it."
One author of the study had the benefit of living and working in the Faroes. Dr. Bogi Hansen, an oceanographer at the Faroese Fisheries Laboratory, said instruments that tracked currents, salinity and temperature were placed on the ridge east of the islands.
The water flowing over that sill, he said, constitutes a submarine river 10 miles wide and more than 600 feet deep, with a flow twice that of all the world's freshwater rivers combined.
Detailed readings from the anchored instruments over five years were matched up with separate measurements taken nearby since 1948 from weather ships, providing a much longer-term estimate of shifts in the deep currents.
The amount of cold deep water in that time, Dr. Hansen said, has fallen 20 percent and is accelerating. "If you look at the graph," he said, "you see the decrease is much faster in the last five years than it was over the 50-year period."
But Dr. Hansen said the record was still not long enough to determine whether the change was linked to warming of the atmosphere from rising levels of greenhouse gases.
7/3/01
7:35:09 PM
Planet Ark World Environment News
UPDATE - Hanoi sees need for urgent dioxin survey - US expert - VIETNAM http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11411
Refugee children in US at risk for lead poisoning - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11404
UPDATE - Calif. opens another plant, boosts energy savings - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11405
UPDATE - Interior says Florida coast off-limits to drilling - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11406
Nuclear Management tests shut Mich. nuke for cracks - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11417
FEATURE - Wily coyote outgunned by bigger canine cousin - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11416
FEATURE - A day in